Newsworthy Math

This site is about mathematics in society. It will make one point, over and over again: that mathematical ideas are far more relevant to our everyday lives than we generally appreciate, and that for every one we make use of, there are many others that, to our loss, we miss.

I also believe that mathematics is a great source of richness that many more people deserve to enjoy. Like music mathematics could fill many lifetimes of study, but, also like music, it can be its own immediate reward, and one can enjoy the beauty of ideas and expressions that one could never produce oneself. Sadly many people are so frightened by mathematics as children that they shy away from this possibility. I don’t think this is inevitable. We can do better.

The Social Status of Mathematics

Mathematics is deeply under-regarded in Anglo-American culture. (Things may be different elsewhere, but I have my doubts.) We pay lip service to its importance. We dedicate a vast percentage of our children’s school time to it whether they like it or not, and perennially deplore the shocking poor results of that. And yet there is the widely acknowledged, faux-lamented double standard: no one would admit to not understanding literature, people boast about how poor they are at math.

We value the fruits of mathematics, but we’re perfectly happy to offshore the actual work, and we see little point in understanding it. It’s worth asking whether and when that’s OK. It can’t be insignificant that so many successful people boast of their mathematical ineptitude. Obviously it’s possible to succeed without mathematical skills. I would argue that this is also true for sport, exercise, art, dancing, music, and a sense of humor. You can succeed without any one of these things, but they do add zest to life.

The mathematics I propose to discuss will be essentially high school level, or math that at least could be taught in high school. Often it will be simple arithmetic. You’d be amazed how far a good understanding of proportion can get you.

I aim to focus on mathematics in or near the news. Mathematical education will be a frequent topic. We spend a fortune on it, we don’t much like the outcome. This despite the enormous amount of thought, research and intelligence that has gone in to improving the situation.

If this was an easy problem, or even a reasonable one, it would have been solved by now. Instead it is an interesting one. Welcome to the conversation.